The weather forecast flipped and flopped all week, and we didn’t know which weekend day would be the best until we got up this morning. Fortunately, we are early risers, and because one of us (who has learned well over 20+ years that neither of us are the best at cheerful last-minute hustle) spent many rainy-day hours choosing potential hikes and printing maps, we had a ready-made list to choose from. It was just a matter of some coffee for me, a little breakfast for TBG and the chickens, throwing a few things in our packs, and a quick perusal of the hike list to make a choice. We settled on a two-fer for what promised to be a beautiful day.
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TBGuide signals the beginning at the end. |
The above pic was taken on the way out because on the way in, there was another couple preparing for their hike right here, and we didn’t want to wait for them to move. The lady asked us where we were headed, and I said, “Little MASH-ull Falls.” She said, “Oh, Muh-SHELL Falls are beautiful…” and she told us just how to find the lower, middle, and upper falls. I have no idea which of us — or if either of us — pronounced it properly. However, it’s to be said, we accessed it from the town of Eatonville at this nice trail head and free parking area.
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| Bridge over the River Mashel |
The Bud Blancher Trail is a wide, even gravel path, and on this late winter day, it was exposed to all the sunshine it could handle. There are two river crossings over the Mashel on this trail.
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| The new boots get their 2nd outing on the 2nd bridge! |
After the second bridge, the trail to the falls heads off to the left.
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| In search of the cataracts. |
It also goes up, which should be no surprise since falling water needs height from which to fall, no? When we reached the spur trail to the lower falls, we decided to go up to the highest one first and view them in descending order. We encountered a family at what we thought was the spur to the upper falls, but they said it was the middle and to keep going because the upper falls were really great. The trail, however, was not. It became narrow, sort of muddy single-track on the edge of a rather sketchy drop-off.
I was feeling kind of cranky scared, then TBG banged his head on a fallen tree, and we had a few minutes during which things were not at all pleasant. The upper falls were within view, though, so we got hold of ourselves and pressed on just a bit further. We were not all that impressed, and certainly didn’t think this was worth being scared of plunging to your death OR a knock in the noggin.
I don’t know what TBG was thinking at this point, but I was thinking that the lady said the upper falls were great, which meant the lower falls were going to be…not. But I was wrong.
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| View of the upper falls from the rim of the middle falls. |
The middle falls, a.k.a. Little Mashel Falls — the namesake of the hike and the only destination you really need. What? You’re not impressed with this view?
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| How do you like me now? |
There are actual steps leading down to where I am playing Maid of the Mist. I’m not crazy enough to have scrambled my way down there! Don’t Google ‘have people died at Little Mashel Falls,’ especially if you’re my mother. There was a solo lady hiker enjoying a trail snack at the top of the steps, and TBG offered to take her photo there, too, for which she was so excited I was worried she’d slide down the steps in her eagerness. She made it safely down and back and returned the favor of a photo for us.
On down to the lower falls we went.
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| Back to the beginning. |
We did about five miles here, but the day was not done. On returning from one of our Rainier hikes last summer, we noticed signs for a new state park near here. In researching it online, we didn’t feel it merited its own day trip, but we wanted to add it to the Great State Park Grand Scheme, and being a long drive from home, catching it while we were in the area seemed prudent.
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| Lushootseed translation: It’s good to see you. |
As well as this spanky-new sign, there is a nice new parking area and restroom (yay). There were lots of horse trailers that should have been a bit of foreshadowing. After TBG studied the map board, he thought that there looked to be enough trails that we may want to consider this a stand-alone hike another day. However, the sun was shining, and it wasn’t very late in the day, so I snapped a pic of the map and off we trekked. At first, it was pretty nice.
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| Say, this is pretty nice! |
But soon it turned into some of this:
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| Give that man a pony! |
And a whole lot of this:
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| Marginally better than hitting your head on a tree! |
Amazingly, we didn’t get lost in there, though we tried. We were glad that we hadn’t put off this visit because we surely would have been disappointed to travel all that way for this. We didn’t see all the horses that had presumably arrived in the trailers, so we assumed they were off having a jolly old time making mud.
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| Sunshine makes everything better. |
Pony-less patrons can have a nice walk around the gravelled trails, and we were happy to get back on one. TBG is making a bee-line for that puddle, where we rinsed off our boots.
As is tradition, we shared some chips on the drive home, which like on the drive there, TBG took the back roads through bucolic areas where we espied lots of farm animals, and some sort of mutant sheep or maybe a buffalo, enjoying the sun.
Great State Park Grand Scheme total = the big six-oh!